Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton (September 20, 1885 or October 20, 1890 – July 10, 1941) was an American jazz pianist, bandleader and composer whom some call the first true composer of jazz music. Morton was a colorful character who liked to generate publicity for himself by bragging. His business card referred to him as the Originator of Jazz, and he was and is valued as a source of rare information about early jazz, despite his penchant for hyperbole. Birth Ferdinand Joseph Lamothe was born into a Creole community in the Faubourg Marigny neighborhood of downtown New Orleans, Louisiana about 1885 or 1890. A baptismal certificate issued in 1894 lists his date of birth as October 20, 1890; however Morton himself and his half-sisters claimed the September 20, 1885, date is correct. His World War 1 draft registration card shows September 13, 1884. He was born to F.P. Lamothe and Louise Monette (written as Lemott

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